Wednesday, August 22, 2012

U.S. Dystopia

Dystopian novels are a close cousin to the apocalyptic (zombie or otherwise) fare that I tend to read.  Well in one of the rare instances of our government trying to actually give us what we want, they are working very hard to create a permanent dystopia, rather than a temporary novelistic immersion.

US Attorneys Refuse to Assure Judge That They Are Not Already Detaining Citizens Under NDAA

Tangerine Bolan, Daily Cloudt, 9 August 2012 (hat tip: NC)
The US government seems determined to have the power to do away with due process and Americans’ right to a trial.
I am one of the lead plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit against the National Defense Authorization Act, which gives the President the power to hold any US citizen anywhere for as long as he wants, without charge or trial. In May, following a March hearing, Judge Katherine Forrest issued an injunction against it; this week, in a final hearing in New York City, US government lawyers essentially asserted even more extreme powers – the power to entirely disregard the Judge and the law. Indeed, on Monday, August 6, Obama’s lawyers filed an appeal to the injunction – a profoundly important development that as of this writing has been scarcely reported.
Possibly they cannot tell the judge if they are detaining anyone is because they cannot remember who the detained versus who they ex-judicially blew up with a predator drone.


5 comments:

John D. Wheeler said...

The sheeple will never rise up as long as they are well-fed and entertained... so, give it a month or two?

Mayberry said...

Makes me glad that I no longer live at the address listed on the 2010 census. They'll have to do a little digging to find my new coordinates...

russell1200 said...

John: I thought you were into permaculture? That doesn't give you much time for your fruit trees to grow.

CC: Yes, they will have to send a drone with an address search function out to get you - Maybe Arnold will be showing up at your house! Very cool.

Ragnar said...

This case, the refusal to prosecute anyone for the GF Global thefts, the removal of a political dissident to a mental health facility all show the government's and particularly this administration's abandonment of the rule of law. We are in the soft police state phase where the government has assumed dictatorial power but is not yet fully exercising it. We can only wonder how long it will be before we reach the hard state because it is coming.

russell1200 said...

Ragnar:

My only quibble would be the use of "this" administration. Nixon certianly was going down the path, but was caught. Certainly by Clinton the trend was restarted, and Bush W. was far from innocent. If Obama loses, I think it will be because his record in this area turned off much of his base.